[ixacto]

It was either 5 or 6 match into vanguard, which is ok but not great. I saved 105% of my income for a couple years as they paid for all my living expenses including food, although I went shopping to get groceries and cooked for them. Also this was not the tech industry…

I carpooled to work so that was also free. The only thing I spent money on was a couple new iphones and alcohol/dates/entertainment, which was paid with through churning maaaany credit cards.

I’m very grateful for that, and would show them my retirement account every once in awhile to prove that I wasn’t blowing my paycheck on stupid stuff.

The only real problem is that it didn’t really work because housing prices have increased much faster than the market so now I need like 1-1.5MM if I ever want to buy a decent house by Seattle and don’t really have that.

[throw_this_one]

seriously 1-1.5 mil for a decent house there? Is that even for real?

[ixacto]

Yes. You can get cheaper further out, but traffic can make commuting pretty bad. https://www.redfin.com/city/1387/WA/Bellevue/housing-market

Basically FIRE approach doesn't work in the really expensive parts of the country. You need to be putting a large portion of $$$ income into housing which is not a diversified asset. We are getting 18% YOY growth now, but will not get it for the next 30 years.